


The Merit of Good Nails

by shopfront



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Fringe
Genre: Community: femslash10, Crossover Pairing, F/F, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-02
Updated: 2010-09-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:17:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astrid is often surprised by the little things that can make a bad day, tolerable. (Set between 5x09 and 5x12 of Doctor Who.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Merit of Good Nails

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mazily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazily/gifts).



> Thank you to twtd for the beta help!

"Hello! I'm a Very Important Person, and I need to have a looksee around," a man announced very suddenly while Astrid was cleaning up after one of Walter's less successful experiments.

He waved an FBI badge around in the air and then pointed at Astrid while talking hurriedly to a young girl by his side with long red hair.

"Very Boring And Dull, promise," he said. Astrid could only just make out the words, they were said at such speed. "Go wait over there, shouldn't take long."

The girl with him started protesting, but he ignored her, giving her a strong but absentminded push in Astrid's direction.

"Now," he announced more loudly. "Something in here is being all signally, and I need to find it."

"Hang on," Astrid interrupted. "I need to have a closer look at your I.D. first."

"Yes, that's quite right," Walter piped up from the background. "Young Asterisk is always in charge while Peter and Olivia are out."

"Well-" the man said, and fumbled with his pockets. "That's very unusual, most people take it all in the first time, don't often need to- ah, here we are!" Astrid's eyebrows flew up as he thrust his identity card back in her face so forcefully he nearly whacked her on the nose, and the girl snickered. Astrid frowned at her from around the card -

"Is he always like this?" she asked.

\- before taking it off him. She had to give it a good tug too, he seemed reluctant to give it up.

"Normally he's worse," the girl said, with a conspiratorial wink. The man - Doctor, no name - started huffing, but the girl just shouldered in front of him with a toss of her hair. "What? You are! I'm Amy Pond, by the way."

She held her hand out, a smirking sort of a grin playing about her mouth.

"Agent Farnsworth. Do you have some identification, too?" Astrid just asked, shaking her hand without taking her eyes off the card. It was the strangest sort of FBI identification she'd ever seen. Though she supposed that could make a strange sort of sense when they didn't sound even slightly American.

"Oh, no, um. I'm just a sort of, er, advisor?"

"Yes! She's my advisor. For advising… on… things."

"That sounds rather like Peter's job," Walter chimed in from behind Astrid, making her start and hold the card to her chest for a moment.

"Are you on some sort of inter-agency loan or someth-" Astrid asked slowly, still holding Amy Pond's hand. She dropped it quickly, bringing the card up close at her eyes to peer at it, and possibly also to hide her blushing cheeks, and then the right line of text practically leapt out at her. "No, wait, sorry. You are, I see now. I just couldn't quite seem to find it there for a moment."

The Doctor took his identification back with an understanding smile and a one-shoulder shrug. "They always put information in the worst order on these things," he agreed, and then rubbed his hands together. "Right then, let's get started! Amy-"

"Yes, yes, over there." Amy groaned, and headed for the lab table Astrid had been sitting at, her shoes making loud dragging sounds against the concrete as she went. Walter bounced on his toes and watched them for a moment, before the Doctor grabbed him by the arm and yanked him around, talking all the while.

Astrid's heart leapt into her throat and she cringed a little in her own head, but no one yelled and nothing exploded. She just found herself standing in the middle of the lab with an arm hanging in the air, watching a stranger manhandle Walter and riffle through his things, while Walter looked on in delight.

"No, not that, hmm, no-" the Doctor muttered to himself as he flung things this way and that, then waved something small and silvery in front of his nose before throwing it aside, too. "No, not that either.

Walter suddenly made a pained sound as something went crashing to the floor behind the man. Astrid couldn't help but echo him, imagining the lengthy clean up in their future, not to mention calming Walter down again.

"Oh, sorry-" the Doctor declared distractedly, and continued shuffling through things at only a fractionally slower pace.. "Aha! Wait, no. That's not quite right. Where did you get this?"

The question made Walter beam again.

"That came from-" he started proudly, and Astrid just threw up her hands and decided to tune them out.

When she turned around to look for Amy, Astrid found she'd cleared a space and hopped up on a table, and was currently occupied with swinging her legs and fiddling with the settings on Astrid's favourite microscope.

"Er, sorry," she said sheepishly when Astrid walked over. "I didn't move anything important, did I? Only, it seemed like you were working over there when we came in." She waved her hand towards the chair that Astrid had indeed been sitting in at the adjacent table.

"It's fine, it's been a slow day. Haven't had a lot to do. So… what are you an advisor for?"

"Oh, this and that. You know," she said vaguely, eyes focused downward, watching her own feet swing back and forth. "Himself needs a bit of minding, sometimes."

"I know how that goes." Astrid couldn't quite contain the chuckle, and she was glad of it when Amy looked up and broke into a wide grin.

"They're quite the couple, huh?" She quirked her head towards the other side of the room, and Astrid followed her gaze to see Walter and the Doctor bent over something with a few too many robotic limbs, talking too fast and about something far too complicated and odd-sounding for Astrid to bother with. Laughing and shaking her head, she hooked her foot around a chair leg, rolling it over and sitting down.

"I have to admit, it's a little surprising to see someone quite so on Walter's level."

"The Doctor's good with people," Amy agreed with an easy nod.

Her bracelets chimed quietly against the surface of the table as her legs moved, and Astrid couldn't help but watch her fingers as they flicked out repeatedly, and then curved back under the table edge.

"I love your nails," she gasped once she'd managed to get a proper look, and reached for Amy's hand.

Belatedly, she realised she didn't have permission, and her fingers hovered awkwardly above Amy's for a moment. "Uh, may I?"

"Sure, of course," Amy replied, firmly placing one of her hands in Astrid's. "I don't normally bother with details, but the Doctor took me to visit this amazing star cluster, and it just seemed appropriate."

Astrid paused, head bent over Amy's hand, and then looked up at Amy with her eyebrows raised.

"Visit?" she asked. Amy blinked rapidly for a moment and then shook her head frantically.

"To see, he took me to see an amazing star cluster. Through a telescope, you know. From Earth! Star clusters can be really pretty from a distance."

Astrid nodding once, slowly, and turned her face back down to hide a grin. Amy's nails were a smooth, deep blue, with very thin, delicate swirls of white and silver decorating the tips. "They really are lovely," she sighed, running a finger along the edges to feel the pattern.

"I could do yours," Amy offered. "I'd just have to run out… but my, um, my car isn't that far and I have some polishes in it. I could bring them back and paint yours?"

"Oh, no. Thank you! But no, I'll probably have to stick my hand inside something disgusting later, and I'd hate to chip your beautiful work digging around in something dead."

Amy's nose wrinkled. "What do _you_ do?"

"Research mostly." Astrid squared her shoulders. "It's just that here the sort of research required is sometimes a little, well, unexpected."

"Oh." Amy bit her lip and averted her eyes, and Astrid glanced over her shoulder at Walter. "Is your name really Asterisk?"

"Sorry?" Astrid asked, still watching Walter and the Doctor hold something up to the light and coo over it.

"That other guy called you Asterisk when we came in."

"Oh!" Astrid turned back quickly. "That's just Walter. He can never seem to get my name right. It's Astrid, actually."

Amy leaned backward and looked Astrid up and down. "It suits you," she declared finally. "It's nice to meet you, Astrid."

Astrid ducked her head, and then looked around, alarmed, when something that sounded like glass, smashed.

* * *

 

"Oomph." Amy sprawled out on the floor, back against the wall, and threw her arm over her eyes dramatically.

"Do you even know what they're looking for?" Astrid asked wearily. It had taken three trips to the vending machine and then purple jello with sprinkles to appease Walter, and by extension, the Doctor.

"No idea," Amy admitted freely, her voice muffled.

"Do _they_ even know what they're looking for?" Astrid wondered out loud, and sank to the floor next to her.

"Probably not." Amy dropped her arm back into her lap and sighed, long and loud. Then she slumped sideways until she was resting against Astrid's shoulder, and let out a pleased sound.

Something crashed again in the distance, but Astrid just shut her eyes. Unless there were actual tears, she wasn't going to deal with it until somebody made her.

"I could still paint your nails," Amy mumbled into her shoulder, taking hold of her wrist and turning her hand palm-side down. "You do have lovely hands for it."

Astrid just hummed non-commitally, content to let Amy straighten and bend her fingers, gently brushing her fingertips across the curve of each nail and making Astrid shiver when she traced each edge.

"Maybe in a little while," Amy continued quietly, raising their hands up. Astrid opened her eyes just in time to watch her press a kiss to the ends of the fingers, and then Amy laced their fingers together and settled back against her shoulder.

"Maybe," Astrid agreed, and squeezed her hand.

They sat there, Astrid half-dozing, for a long time, just relishing the quiet, until Walter started calling for her.

"Astro! Astro!"

"That's me," Astrid joked with a roll of her eyes and tried to gently nudge Amy off her shoulder, but she only wrapped their arms tighter together, and hung on.

"I don't think so," she said. "Your name is Astrid, not Astro."

Astrid laughed, and tugged her arm again.

"Oh, I suppose it _might_ be you," Amy relented, but didn't release her hold. "But before you go-"

She reached up and pressed a kiss to Astrid's lips.

"-for luck. You'll need it!"

"Astro!"

Astrid shook her head to clear it and licked her lips, smiling. She opened her mouth to say something - what, she wasn't sure - but then Walter called again.

"Go already," Amy urged and she did, only looking back once to see Amy still sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest and her fingers playing across her lips.


End file.
